DOA5: A New Challenger... Akira?

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A new trailer was released today for Dead or Alive 5 which showed off series regular Kasumi as well as a surprising guest character, Akira from Virtua Fighter. The trailer starts off by giving a quick rundown of a new stage, a wooden river raft area inside of a cave. The raft is initially stationery but once you knock your opponent into one of the walls it causes the raft to move downstream and it eventually goes outside, is broken apart and just hangs short of falling off of a waterfall. Dead or Alive has always been known for its large, multi-tiered stages and knowledge of your surroundings has generally played an important role during high-level matches. Dead or Alive 5 seems to up the ante by not just giving you large, static environments but by making parts of the stage actually break and change in real-time. When the raft reaches its destination at the end of the waterfall, a section of the raft breaks off and lets you knock your opponent out. Kasumi is noted as hanging off of the raft here, in one of the cliffhanger scenarios that are being introduced with DOA5, and her opponent runs toward her in order to knock Kasumi off, presumably into another section of the stage to continue the fight.

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The trailer has some notable changes from previous builds. For instance, the effects that come up while hitting your opponent have been significantly toned down and don't cover up much of the screen. These effects slightly light up the area being hit as well and blocked attacks now create a slight puff of smoke. In terms of system changes, fortunately, holds don't seem as powerful as they were in previous DOA games and appear to be much shorter in duration and damage. The action tends to quickly get back to normal after a successful hold is completed in comparison to the older games where a hold would tend to break the flow of a match. Unfortunately, to the dismay of much of the fighting game community, it still appears to be possible to hold during critical state, not to be confused with hit-stun for you Street Fighter players out there. The number of moves that actually cause this critical state has been toned down from DOA4 and DOA Dimensions fortunately. Some more good news is that moves appear to track less than in previous iterations and wall hits seem to leave your opponent in a slight juggle state which would mean that it would be possible for you to guarantee a follow-up. Holding "un-holdable" attacks in DOA5 also steps you to your opponents side rather than their back and Kasumi uses this advantage to charge and hit Ayane with her "Power Blow" attack.

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Other changes include Kasumi's being avoided by Ayane's special position switch jump, Kasumi's returning after missing in action in DOA4 along with what looks like a modified from DOA3. Kasumi has also gained a fair amount of new moves from various teleport situations that weren't previously possible and she's also lost the ground bounce after her . Ayane has gained a new move where she twirls her arms and leaves her back-turned and the animation for this seems very reminiscent of Kasumi's in DOA++. Akira seems to be a faithful representation of his Virtua Fighter 5 self with the added "Power Blow" technique added to his repertoire. Overall, the game is looking very impressive right now but we still don't know nearly enough about the system changes to determine whether or not they'll appease the hardcore Dead or Alive player.

For more DOA5 news, be sure to follow FreeStepDodge.com and look foward to a frame-by-frame analysis of the trailer soon.

As an Akira player, looking at this the first time got me hyped up. Especially due to DOA's game system, the inputs are going to be virtually identically.

Looking at it more critically the second time I see some things that I don't like. When Akira sidesteps during the beginning of the match Kasumi automatically tracks his movement, while she's simply holding Guard. A lot of those sidestepping movements play a huge role in Akira's game(it's a big part of VF is more accurate to say) and it's a bit disheartening to know that the opponent has to be attacking and committed to a direction in order for those evasions to be effective.

The overall ineffectiveness of sidestepping in DOA is going to be VERY frustrating to Virtua Fighter players who will be trying to play Akira as best they can. Backdashing and whiff baiting is not a replacement for sidestepping. Even though seeing Akira is cool, I can very easily see people complaining about DOAs engine even more.

If team Ninja wants to fix this, they'll modify the sidestepping and ad some side throws. It's not that difficult. But will they fix it?

Also to note Baron, don't expect Akira to be an exact port of himself from VF5 because he isn't supposed to be. This Akira is fixed up for DOA, and to be good with him you'll need to learn and adapt the way DOA plays.

My two favourite fighters together. That's about all the analysis I have right now except - this is great, and its good for both games, hype for both, exposure for both, a bit more excitement for VF, and a bit more credibility for DOA.

Technically, critical-state != hit stun. By implying that Critical State = hit stun, you implying that you can hold out of every single combo. A better way to word it is to point out that critical state is a special state some moves put you in and that not every move puts you in it.

Technically yes but I didn't want to get too technical in a quick run-down like this. Based on what we've seen in the trailer, it's fairly safe to assume that most of the hits were putting the characters in deeper stuns, i.e. critical states. It makes no sense logically, that the shorter stuns can't be held out of but deeper ones can, haha.

We don't know that Kasumi's 6PK doesn't launch. Ayane was backturned when it hit. It may still launch a forward facing opponent. I also don't see how you can state counters aren't as powerful or damaging when we have no HUD to determine that.

I like what I'm seeing for the most part, but I still have some concerns. It looked as though Akira has frame advantage where he's supposed to, but Kasumi counters out of the frame advantage. Unless there are quick, uncounterable attacks, frame advantage won't matter, and it will still be a guessing game.

I want to know when counters can be used during that trailer and when they can't. If the only time counters can be used is when we saw counters, then it's not too bad, but we have no way of knowing.

At the very least, this pretty much guarantees Akira will be playable at E3.

I also don't see how you can state counters aren't as powerful or damaging when we have no HUD to determine that.

I want to know when counters can be used during that trailer and when they can't. If the only time counters can be used is when we saw counters, then it's not too bad, but we have no way of knowing.

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I believe he was referencing the Alpha build's hud in how normal holds were doing ~20 damage from the looks of things. You're right that nothing in this specific trailer can suggest damage levels, but the other recent video we received shows that it's on the low side.

As for knowing when to hold, you'll never get that from a trailer as we don't know when the computer could have or have not held. It's just going to take some physical tests with the game or interview with the devs to find that answer. The question has always been a question since DOA5 was announced.

I also don't see how you can state counters aren't as powerful or damaging when we have no HUD to determine that.

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There's the other video with a HUD but, just in general, the new animation makes it seem as if the hold Ayane did was less damaging overall. I also didn't state for a fact that they're not as powerful, I said that they "seem" and "appear" that way. Qualifiers bro.

I like what I'm seeing for the most part, but I still have some concerns. It looked as though Akira has frame advantage where he's supposed to, but Kasumi counters out of the frame advantage. Unless there are quick, uncounterable attacks, frame advantage won't matter, and it will still be a guessing game

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Well there's the Normal Holds and Expert Holds now. Even though Kasumi countered it, maybe she had to perform the Expert Hold, making it take more skill to do. Maybe that's how they're kind of breaking the guessing game abit.

Well there's the Normal Holds and Expert Holds now. Even though Kasumi countered it, maybe she had to perform the Expert Hold, making it take more skill to do. Maybe that's how they're kind of breaking the guessing game abit.

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They're "expert holds" in name only. The notation is not difficult. Either way, anything that negates frame advantage is bad.

Well there's the Normal Holds and Expert Holds now. Even though Kasumi countered it, maybe she had to perform the Expert Hold, making it take more skill to do. Maybe that's how they're kind of breaking the guessing game abit.

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The test of how good or bad a system mechanic is does not lie in how hard the input is to do. Good players will find a way to be able to do them regardless.

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